U.S. Role in Admitting “fair Share” of Refugees Criticized at Geneva Conference

The insignificant role which the United States is playing in admitting European displaced persons was emphasized here today at the 14-Nation meeting of the Preparatory Commission of the International Refugee Organization.

A report submitted to the conference revealed that during the past eight months more refugees were admitted to Britain, France and Belgium than to the United States, while Canada permitted the entry of 11,500 displaced persons as compared with ?2,200 who were admitted to the United States. The number of DP’s who entered Britain during the same period was more than 45,000.

Addressing the parley last night, William H. Tuck, American executive secretary of the Commission, charged the democratic nations with hampering the solution of the refugee problem in Europe by failing to accept a plan calling on each country to receive a “fair share” of DP’s, regardless of age, sex, nationality or working status. ##e bitterly criticized the policies of some governments which permit the admission of former prisoners of war but bar refugees, most of whom, he said, are allies of the democracies.

Emphasizing the growing antagonism between the local population in Germany and the DP’s there, Tuck said: “It is three years this week since the end of hostilities, and refugees are still subject to the animosity of the Germans whose propaganda painted them as lawless elements.” He asserted that actually the opposite is true, adding that the DP’s are more law-abiding than the Germans with whom they are forced to live.

JEWISH CONGRESS OBJECTS TO GERMAN CONTROL OVER DISPLACED JEWS

The World Jewish Congress submitted a memorandum to the I.R.0. meeting strongly objecting to any expansion of administrative control by German authorities over Jewish displaced persons. The memorandum, signed by Dr. Leon Kubowitzki and Kurt Crossman, urged the parley to call for an open door into Palestine “as the only practical solution of the problem of the displaced Jews.”

Other demands formulated in the memorandum are: 1. To end the “unrealistic and harmful practice” of depriving I.R.O. care for those Jewish DP’s who entered the occupation zones after April 21, 1947; 2. Not to commit the “harmful mistake” of forcing Jewish DP’s “to work for the benefit of the German economy,” an action which might encounter justified resentment, and lead to anti-Semitic agitation; 3. To organize voluntary agencies as an advisory body to the I.R.O. with a consultative function and responsibility in certain fields in which these agencies specialize.